Dilemmas of modernist (non)existence – entropic “I” in the prose by Stanisław Przybyszewski

Abstract

The author declares Stanisław Przybyszewski as one of the precursors of the modern recognition of subject as a broken entity, aware of internal contradictions, and therefore unable to constitute itself, unreconciled with being, turning into and enemy of itself. The Young Poland writer portrayed as an exponent of ontological uncertainty that characterised thinking about man and the world throughout the twentieth century. Analysing works from different stages of his career, the author finds that their heroes are not an aftermath of the epidemic of pessimism, but a reflection of a deeper anthropological crisis, one that lead, after Przybyszewski’s death, through Sartre’s existentialism to the postmodern proclamation of “death of the subject.” The author also indicates that Przybyszewski’s characters suffer from vagueness and elusiveness of their own selves, until they lose the sense of self, experiencing a crisis of rationalism and plunging into the cultural matrix.

Keywords

• Przybyszewski Stanisław
• literatura modernizmu, „ja” w literaturze
• podmiotowość w literaturze